Spirit Award: Donovan

On June 10th 2009 our beautiful baby boy was born! From day one he has brought so much joy, love and laughter to our family. On January 7th 2013 Donovan had his 1st seizure which was diagnosed as “nothing”. After spending 4 days in the hospital, a C.A.T scan, MRI, and a 4 day EEG. He tested normal! 7 weeks later he made some funny noises so we took him to a different E.R. There we were told that the noises he was making were caused by seizures. He had 7 seizures, followed by another 5 day stay and a 5 day EEG, which was also normal and showed no signs of seizures. We decided to start him on medication.

The Medication did not work well with him and we took him off after 6 weeks, after doing 4 more EEG’s which showed “Nothing”. On June 5th he had another cluster of seizures, consisting of 3 to 10 clusters. In the E.R. he had a 20 minute seizure that the doctors were unable to control giving him so much medication that he was in ICU for 5 days. He had another EEG, MRI, EKG, ECHO exam and lots of blood work. Again, everything was normal. This time we tried another medication. On August 13 he seized right through the meds. He was hospitalized for the rest of the month. He was then put on more meds totaling his meds to 15 pills a day. On September 28th he had another cluster of seizures which landed him back in the hospital for 6 more days and more tests and blood work. He is now on another combination of meds. Unfortunately the meds have started attacking his liver and kidneys. He has filled a total of approx. 72 tubes of blood, 13 EEG’s, 2 MRI’s and a lot more tests. They have only been able to see one seizure on the EEG. The Doctors have diagnosed him with Complex Partial Epilepsy but we still don’t know what triggers his cluster of seizures. We are very fortunate that we have a great team of Doctors that will stop at nothing to get more answers!!!

Despite all of this he continues to be an amazing big brother to his 3 year old sister Gianna. She is his biggest fan and her only wish is that her brother doesn’t have to go back to the hospital again. He is so Smart, Brave, Sweet, Funny and Caring. Donovan enjoys school, playing with his friends and making everyone laugh. He loves to entertain everyone with his singing and dancing. Looking at him you would never know how much he has been through, He Has Never Lost His Smile!!! : )